How to Build the Best Mouse / Rat Trap for Good Eating!

“Honey, let’s have the neighbors over for dinner.” “What are you CRAZY!? What would we feed them?” “I don’t know, maybe some of the mice in the attic.” “You’re sick!” “No baby, in some countries they’re a delicacy.”

Laugh if you want, but it’s true! Read:

The hunting and eating of mice is very deeply entrenched in the customs and traditions of the Tumbuka people of Eastern rural Zambia. As a delicacy, mice might be offered with the nshima staple traditional meal, which is cooked by boiling water and stirring corn meal into it until the mixture is thick. The meal with mice might be served to guests, other respected elders, or eaten by the family as a special treat.

I’ve filed this post under food AND urban survival, because it’s you city dwellers that could find this particularly useful given limited food availability in times of crisis (though rural field mice could also be targets). Mice don’t rank high on my list of favorite foods, but if I was starving . . .

Remember in the SHTF classic fiction novel Lucifer’s Hammer when the Senator was awarding small “gifts” (like the last remaining chocolate bars) to kids that came up with creative ideas for finding food – like mouse traps? Ranger Man would’ve been eating some sweet Hershey action for this design.

I wish I could take the credit for its invention, but a past co-worker showed it to me after I complained about mice in my old New England home. He learned it from his brother who lived in Alaska where they had a serious problem with mice. I use this trap all the time, because it’s very effective. It’s biggest advantage, in a place riddled with mice, is that you can slay a virtual endless number of mice without having to reset the trap (which is why it’s a hit in Alaska). Also, unlike snap traps where the mouse may spring the trap and survive, there is no room for error with this one.

Supplies Needed: one 5 gallon bucket, a piece of wire or thin rope, a plastic bottle, a mouse “ramp” and some peanut butter. Yes, I understand the “use peanut butter to get food?” argument. Substitute what you must for your situation, perhaps you have some rotten food that’d otherwise make you sick. OR, after you’ve trapped some mice, lick the remaining peanut butter off yourself. 😉

Assembly: Drill a small hole in each end of the plastic bottle. I use a stripped piece of electrical wire. Thread it through the bottle and secure the ends to the bucket’s handles. The bottle should then sit over the bucket’s opening with the ability to spin freely. Lather it in peanut butter, place the bucket where the mice are apt to smell it, and set a ramp for the mice to climb. I used a scrap piece of drywall, but anything will work.

The mice climb up the ramp, reach for the peanut butter, spin the bottle and fall into the bucket. They can’t get out. For my purposes, I put several inches of water in the bottom of the bucket and let them drown. Cruel? Perhaps, but I don’t dig mice in my house and this trap rules. For survival purposes the bucket should be left empty so that your dinner is fresh!

Results:

You can even see its poop. He’s another view of the little bastard after I took him out with the wood ashes.

There’s not much meat there, though. Catching rats would be better. Urban dwellers could probably produce a bigger rodent meat supply than I could.

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